I bought it on eBay, I had a daily search running on eBay for one of these systems for about a year before one became available!

It’s a really cool little machine.

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:57 pm

by halfmanhalftaco

Funny that you post this, I just picked up a Javastation-1 (aka Mr. Coffee) and have been trying to get it working... It's a little different hardware-wise than your Krups but maybe some of my experience will be useful. Mine has the newer 3.x OpenBoot/OFW so it should boot in a similar way to your Krups.

I replaced the NVRAM, but I couldn't break into OpenBoot to reprogram it so I ended up doing that on a different machine. I later found out that a Manufacturing Test jumper on the board will give you a 6 second window to break into the prompt.

I got NetBSD (6.1.5) booting on it which was not terribly difficult, you just need a DHCP server that can set the "next server", "boot file" and "root path" dhcp options, then a TFTP server with the javastation-specific "bootjs.net" netbsd bootloader on it (the "boot file" param), and then an NFS server (path on the "next server" in the "root path" param) with the NetBSD binary sets extracted and the appropriate kernel - there are specific kernels for Mr Coffee and Krups Javastations included.

The console is kinda messed up looking and I can't get X working, but it does boot!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 12:11 am

by Irinikus

That’s very cool! It’s also in very good condition!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 10:19 pm

by vishnu

Personally not a big believer in Java as a technology but those are two very cool units!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:24 am

by halfmanhalftaco

vishnu wrote:Personally not a big believer in Java as a technology but those are two very cool units!

Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), it's difficult to actually run Java on these things because the original OS (JavaOS) is difficult/impossible to find. I think JavaOS was basically meant as a thin client though, and not an actual OS. This led into the SunRay line of hardware which is even more locked down - the SunRay 1/1g also have microSPARC-II processors like these javastations but they don't have OpenBoot and from what I'm told are locked to running only signed code. Haven't really seen any workarounds for that hardware. I have a SunRay 1g but it is just a snazzy looking brick.

I believe the SunRay 2 and up had MIPS CPUs in them and I think they have been coerced into running Linux but I'm not sure.

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:08 am

by jan-jaap

vishnu wrote:Personally not a big believer in Java as a technology

Yeah, me too. But that cup of java looks like I might enjoy it

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:20 am

by spiroyster

jan-jaap wrote:

vishnu wrote:Personally not a big believer in Java as a technology

Yeah, me too. But that cup of java looks like I might enjoy it

idk, it gives a nice performance boost!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 3:35 am

by Irinikus

spiroyster wrote:

jan-jaap wrote:

vishnu wrote:Personally not a big believer in Java as a technology

Yeah, me too. But that cup of java looks like I might enjoy it

idk, it gives a nice performance boost!

I always say that life doesn’t begin until you’ve had a good cup of coffee in the morning!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:50 pm

by astouffer

I used to run one of the second gen javastations as a diskless NetBSD client. It booted from a DEC Alpha running NetBSD and remote X worked. I even had Netscape running with the Tru64 compatibility libs.

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:14 am

by Irinikus

Some more pics of my JavaStation-10:

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:16 pm

by jpstewart

I'm oddly fond of the way it looks with the "doors" open. There's something about just having them, that shows the designers put some thought into both form and function. They make it look like a well thought out system. (Although I have never used one, so I don't know if that holds up in reality.) It's certainly interesting hardware.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 1:39 pm

by Irinikus

jpstewart wrote:I'm oddly fond of the way it looks with the "doors" open. There's something about just having them, that shows the designers put some thought into both form and function.

To me, it resembles a troop carrier from Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

Re: Would you like some Java with that JavaStation?

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:57 am

by Irinikus

I now have two JavaStation-10's (one is a brand new unit) the only problem is that I don't have a power supply brick. (This I will definitely need to source.)

It seems that people who hung onto these units usually kept them for display purposes and didn't keep the Power Supplies as a result!

The JavaStation makes use of a proprietary connector to deliver DC to the unit.

After looking at the Sun Cobalt Cube 3, I have noticed that although the cube makes use of a standard DIN connector to deliver DC to the unit, it has the same number of pins an the DC connector used with the JavaStation.

I am wondering if I could not possibly just to buy a Cube 3 make up a plug converter for it's power supply and use it with the JavaStation until I'm able to acquire the correct power supply brick?

Does anyone here have any idea as to what the pinouts on the JavaStation's Power Supply brick are and what type of plug is used?

For now, I'm assuming that the rail voltages are +12V, -12V and +5v like those found in the Cobalt Cube 3.

Can the JavaStation not maybe be used as a serial terminal computer, as it has a serial port. I would like to maybe use one of these machines to display the boot process of my V880 via serial or network serial. (This seems like a good possible use for one of these machines, if it's indeed possible.)